This application relates to digital communication. More particularly, this application relates to equalizers used in digital communication to compensate for dispersive channels.
A signal may be degraded when sent across a channel. A key challenge in communication theory is how to overcome this degradation to reliably and efficiently receive the correct series of elements that comprise a signal. One type of degradation is dispersion, where each element of a signal spreads in time, potentially overlapping with adjacent elements to create intersymbol interference (ISI).
One example of dispersion occurs when an antenna sends a signal through the air. Because the signal is sent omnidirectionally, it can take multiple paths to reach the destination, with each path encountering its own set of obstacles. These obstacles can partially reflect the signal, partially absorb the signal, or both, resulting in the destination receiving multiple versions of the signal at varying strengths and at varying times. The main path usually yields the strongest version, with any preceding versions known as pre-echoes and any subsequent versions known as post-echoes.
An equalizer is a device designed to compensate for signal dispersion. A common type of equalizer is the decision-feedback equalizer (DFE), which makes decisions based on pre-echoes to substantially cancel out post-echoes. The DFE is often capable of adapting to channels whose characteristics vary over time, yielding relatively accurate performance in the presence of significant ISI.
For channels whose pre-echoes and post-echoes are spread over a relatively long period of time, known as long delay spread channels, the DFE often requires more computations to properly process the echoes to equalize the channel. More computations generally increase the amount of hardware and time required to achieve accurate performance. A need remains for an equalizer capable of more efficiently and reliably equalizing such channels.